Many individuals and corporations are wondering how to make money on TikTok. Interestingly, the platform’s popularity with influencers and corporate brands is unsurprising, as it has emerged as a formidable force in the social media space.
Carving a niche on TikTok and amassing a teeming audience may be easy. However, making money on this social media platform requires strategy and poise. There are a thousand and one ways to monetize TikTok. For example, brand collaboration for businesses, advertising revenue and content creation for individual users are popular money-making routes.
So, permit us to walk you through proven tips on how to make money on TikTok.
What Is TikTok?
A little background on TikTok for those who have only heard about it through hearsay. TikTok is a short-form video hosting and sharing service owned by a Beijing-based software company, ByteDance. The video-sharing platform went live in September 2016, and by April 2020, the app had exceeded two billion downloads. Many of the viral trends that appear on other social media platforms often originate from TikTok.
Since its inception eight years ago, TikTok has exceeded all revenue and growth expectations. While many other social media networks struggle to scale, TikTok’s growth has seemed almost effortless. In Q2 2023, TikTok reported revenue of approximately $30 billion. Also, by 2024 estimations, the global population of TikTok users stands at 900 million and is expected to edge close to a billion in the coming year.
Now, the average person might ask: “What drives fan engagement on TikTok and makes it so successful?” Business experts posit that it all boils down to how the app works.
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How Does TikTok Work?
TikTok allows its users to share videos that are between 15 seconds and three minutes long. However, unlike what applies to most other social media apps, the impression on each uploaded video is not a function of how many followers the uploader has. TikTok sports an intelligent algorithm that records videos for users based on their patterns of interacting with the app.
So, activities like liking, commenting, sharing, or searching out certain content are likely to cause similar ones to find their way to your feed. Consequently, the For You Page (FYP) of each TikTok user is peculiar to them and is a function of the algorithm’s recommendation. Also, users don’t need to follow creators for content to pop up on the FYP.
On some other social media apps, you have to worry about producing creative content, building a community, and actively making efforts for the content’s visibility. However, with TikTok, just put out quality and engaging content, and your post may even go viral before amassing a handful of followers.
15 Ways To Earn Money on TikTok
1. Join the TikTok Creator Fund
For every 1,000 views on each TikTok content, you can earn between 2 and 4 cents. However, you need to register for the TikTok Creator Fund to enjoy this monetization benefit. To qualify, you will need:
- To be at least 18 years old and attest to this through an in-app verification.
- At least 10,000 followers
- A minimum of 100,000 video views in the past 30 days.
2. Promote Your E-commerce Hustle
For TikTok users who find it difficult to actively create content, you can still earn passively. For example, you can create a digital product that requires a one-off effort, and maybe occasional reviews. Place a link to the product in your TikTok bio and earn money from the sales conversion. This would work well for users who already have a large following.
3. Offer Content Creation Training for a Token
Is there a skill you can teach virtually, or are you eager to help your followers replicate your TikTok success? You can organize a TikTok workshop or training session and get participants to pay for your expertise.
4. Get Paid to Promote Other Businesses
Corporate ads can be pretty expensive to create, and many brands are even cashing in on reaching their potential clients through social media. This is where you come in as a TikTok influencer. You only need to create promotional videos for the company’s product, or service, and get paid for your trouble.
5. Become a Brand Ambassador
You may wonder how some TikTok influencers manage to promote niche products. More often than not, they are brand ambassadors for the producer of the items. Ambassadors don’t necessarily drive sales through obvious means. Instead, they naturally incorporate the products in question into their videos.
6. Improve the Potential of Your Account Through Collaboration Hubs
Look for TikTok influencers within your niche for collaboration. For example, a singer could collaborate with a dancer. This kind of collaboration is mutually beneficial.
7. Take Followers On a Conceptualization Journey and Allow Them To Buy In
If you have a tangible project outside your TikTok activities, it is possible to bring your fans up to speed about it. You could even get your followers involved by allowing them to financially support the project.
8. Create In-Feed Advertisements
In-feed ads are like regular TikTok videos with embedded clickable call-to-action Text. Often such links redirect fans to your website, to register for a service or pay for a product.
9. Use TikTok and Spark Ads for Client Conversion
TikTok Ads and Spark Ads are paid and targeted methods of reaching a niche audience on TikTok. With a little token creators and companies can drive traffic and merchandise sales. If you have products or services for a target market, this is the way to go.
10. Receive Tips and Donations from Your Audience
TikTok followers and fans can choose to help or encourage a creator by donating to their content creation process. Sometimes, the creator may need to notify fans that they accept such tips and donations.
11. Create a Patreon for Exclusive Followers
Professionals who use TikTok to interact with fans and followers may choose to set up a Patreon. This gives both creators and fans who agree to pay a fee exclusive access to one another.
12. Run One-Off Sponsored Content and Initiate Brand Partnerships
Creators don’t have to be tied to any brand collaboration. Instead, they could create a one-off sponsored content that may earn them between a hundred to thousands of dollars.
13. Make Money Through Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves selling products online without keeping an inventory. You drive the sales of a company’s product and earn a commission on each unit.
14. Make the Most of TikTok Shop for In-App Sales
The TikTok Shop feature allows popular creators to turn their profile into a virtual storefront. Basically, this feature makes you carry out e-commerce activities without leaving the TikTok app.
15. Earn Virtual Gifts On TikTok LIVE
TikTok Live is an app feature that allows creators to interact with fans through live streaming. Depending on how engaging your live-streaming sessions are, visitors may choose to send you virtual gifts. After accumulating the virtual gifts for a while, you can exchange them for actual money.
How Many TikTok Followers Are Needed To Start Earning Money?
When it comes to monetization of a TikTok account, there’s no fixed number for the number of followers that a user must have. The bottom line is that your content enjoys fan engagement; views, comments and likes. It gets even better if your content triggers a trend that makes other TikTok users recreate your videos.
However, to qualify for TikTok’s Creativity Program, 10,000 followers is what you’d need to gun for. Similarly, for TikTok users eyeing corporate brand partnerships and influencer marketing deals, a trove of 100,000 followers is a perfect bait.
How Much Does TikTok Pay?
There are a handful of TikTok influencers who make decent incomes through the monetization of their social media accounts. Here are some of the top earners on TikTok:
- Zach King: This online personality started with Vine and YouTube videos. However, since he created a TikTok profile, King has been earning approximately $41,000 per post. Did we hear you say “easy money?” Well, most of King’s TikTok income came through brand collaboration with Credit Karma and PlayStation, thanks to his video editing skills.
- Dixie and Charlie D’Amelio: These duo are professional dancers who have had many dance routines go viral. Dixie earns roughly $2.9 million a year on TikTok while Charlie, the elder, earns approximately $4 million.
- Addison Rae Easterling: Easterling is also a dancer, like the D’Amelios. She earns about $5 million annually from actively creating TikTok content. Easterling also earns advertising revenue from brands like American Eagle, Reebok and Fashion Nova. She recently took the earnings game to the next level through merchandise sales of her branded line.
The list above is a sample of TikTok’s top-earning creators. However, you can equally make between $500 to $2,000 per video if you’re an influencer with over 100,000 followers. Similarly, some TikTok users earn money by organically building up the following on a new account and selling it off for between $1,000 and $2,000.
Conclusion
We have a caveat here for you. Most of the high earners on TikTok have a skillset as the bedrock of their value creation journey. So, it is not enough to simply read 100 tips on how to make money on TikTok. Identify something creative you love doing, and build content ideas around that ability. Before long, your TikTok audience will start trickling in, and the money shortly after.